Maker Faire Bay Area 2008
Hydraulic Flight Simulator

Topic(s): Science

Tags: aircraft airplane flight+simulator sim flight fly lift drag thrust gravity potential+energy "kin

Location:   The Hangar   


The Hydraulic Flight Simulator is a tabletop device that allows students of aviation to see in real-time the dynamic relationship between power and pitch. It show how energy is transferred from the engine to the plane as airspeed, how airspeed is turned into altitude and how altitude can be exchanged for airspeed. To do this, the Hydraulic Flight Simulator uses the medium of water to represent the energy present when an airplane is in flight. The Hydraulic Flight Simulator was created to behave realistically, accounting for the loss of energy from drag, the effect of gravity, the loss of lifting ability due to density altitude, induced drag at high angles of attack and the complete loss of lift due a stall. The Simulator can be used to demonstrate cruise, terminal velocity, service ceiling, slow flight, stall and stall recovery, decent, "dead-stick" decent and landing. Instructional topics include discussion of potential energy (fuel supply and altitude) and kinetic energy (air speed) and the four forces acting on an airplane in flight; thrust and drag, lift and gravity. Featured in MAKE (12): http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol12/?pg=154&pm=2&u1=friend

Web site: http://www.hydroflightsim.net

Project photo.

About the Maker(s)

David Simpson David Simpson [
About David Simpson - Inventor & Instructor Aviation and aerospace education have been under my skin for a while. I've built and flown model airplanes since I was in grammar school and taught model airplane building to fourth, fifth and sixth graders when I was in high school. I finally got my private pilot's license a few years ago. Shortly after 9/11, I became a volunteer with the US Civil Air Patrol, the civilian auxiliary to the US Air Force. I'm currently a 1st Lieutenant and the Aerospace Education Officer for CAP Group 221 in New Jersey. My role is to make learning aviation theory and practice fun and interesting for the Cadets - the junior high and high school aged members. Besides the Hydraulic Flight Simulator, I've designed and built numerous aerospace education devices and the accompanying lesson plans including those for the Internal Explosion Engine (MAKE 13), the Tabletop R/C Trainer and the Tri-Axis Gyro Demonstrator. Along with my work with CAP, I also developed and delivered a hands-one robotics workshop for the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey, a rocketry day and a robotics day for the Morris Area Girl Scout Council. In 2006, I coached Newark's East Side High School FIRST Robotics Competition team, which was awarded New Jersey's Topped Ranked Rookie that year. I'm also the inventor of United States Patent 7,027,568, Simpson, et al., issued on April 11, 2006, entitled "Personal message service with enhanced text to speech synthesis", a technology for the wireless delivery of synthesized speech from text.
http://www.hydroflightsim.net